A bone-anchored hearing aid for patients with pure sensorineural hearing impairment: A pilot study

Abstract

This pilot study assesses the potential benefits of an optimized bone-anchored hearing aid (BAHA) for patients with a mild to moderate pure sensorineural high frequency hearing impairment. The evaluation was conducted with eight first-time hearing aid users by means of psycho-acoustic sound field measurements and a questionnaire on subjective experience; all of the patients benefited from the BAHA. On average, the eight patients showed improvement in PTA threshold of 3.4 dB and in speech intelligibility in noise of 14%. Seven of the subjects, also fitted with present standard air conduction hearing aids (ACHA) found the ACHA thresholds to be improved more than the BAHA ones. In speech tests, the ACHA was only slightly better; these patients chose between their different hearing aids according to the sound environment. Although the BAHA was preferred for wearing and sound comfort, it cannot be used as the sole aid for patients with pure sensorineural impairment.

A Systematic Review of the Nonacoustic Benefits of Bone-Anchored Hearing Aids

“…First, search strings were derived and submit- Mylanus et al (1995) Yes No Yes Mylanus et al (1998) Yes No Yes Niparko et al (2003) Yes No Yes Reuter et al (1997) No No No Snik et al (1998) Yes No Yes Snik et al (1992) Yes No Yes Snik et al (1994) Yes No Yes Snik et al (1995) Yes No Yes Stenfelt et al (2000) Yes No Yes Tjellstrom et al (1995) Yes ted to the databases to identify lists of potential articles. Second, three reviewers inspected the lists of retrieved articles for relevant titles and excluded those that were clearly not on the topic (e.g., oncology treatments or pediatric focus), with 90% interjudge reliability.…”

New Approach for Implantable Hearing Aids: A Feasibility Study

“…It is used only for conductive hearing loss and is not helpful in sensorineural hearing loss. 23 The description of the hydroacoustic transmission pathway from the CSF surrounding the brain to the inner ear opens new horizons in the field of IHDs. The present study confirms the possibility of implantation of a receiver on the dura in order to stimulate the inner ear.…”